Ireland: “The last five weeks have witnessed not, as should be expected in a civilised country, decisive action to protect women’s lives, but a continuation of the shameful 20-year tradition of political inaction that has prevailed in Ireland at least since the X case.” Shameful lack of urgency on abortion persists – Welcome to the IFN

Kazakhstan: “The job offer seemed too good to be true – and it was. Fatima and her sister fell into the hands of human traffickers, and their “jobs” turned out to be unpaid slave labor.” Grappling with Human Trafficking – EurasiaNet

Thought-provoking

“I’m also often told that my desire not to be a mother makes me selfish. Selfish how, exactly, I’m still not sure. If selfish means I’ve put enough thought into it to realize I shouldn’t bring a child into this world if I don’t want to be a mother, then maybe I am selfish. Perhaps, however, the unselfish thing is to truly reflect on who you are and what you want instead of simply having children because it’s expected of you. I’d challenge the assertion that having kids isn’t selfish: do we honestly believe that every woman or couple who has a child is doing it for purely altruistic motives? There was a time when we needed to repopulate the Earth, but that time is long gone. Now, in the face of world hunger, dwindling resources and overpopulation, having a child might be the selfish path. Regardless, many women feel a purely emotion urge to bear children and their decision, rightly, is never questioned, never insulted, always respected. The choice not to have children should be worthy of equal respect.” Anjali Sareen: I Don’t Want Kids, But I’m Not Broken – Huffington Post

“And then I’m angry. I’m angry that so many people died from an easily-preventable illness because they were lied to. Because they were told deliberate lies about how to protect themselves. Because they were lied to about being people worth loving and protecting. I’m angry that people living with HIV and AIDS arestill stigmatised. I’m angry that people see it as anything other than a fucking awful disease. I’m angry that we so easily separate morality and compassion, and that there are people who think that anything is worth the suffering HIV can still inflict. I’m furious beyond measure that we blame people for being sick. Like there are any perfect ways to prevent infection. Like any of us are perfect. Like there are no other imperatives in people’s lives. As if there is no poverty, no sexism, no homophobia, no sex-negative lies about HIV prevention. We don’t live in a just world. Nobody deserves to get sick.” That World AIDS Day Thing – Flying Tea Cosy

Religion

“If the religious person you are talking to abandons some premise usually found in the religion, then address their particular beliefs with their particular pitfalls. Point out how it logically seems to require that they abandon more of the parts of the faith they maybe still want to keep. Clarify just how much they are willing to reject of what their fellow believers have usually thought and push them on any seemingly arbitrary decisions to accept some problematic beliefs while rejecting formally similar ones. Point out their own beliefs’ inconsistencies with each other, with reality, and with the broader traditions they want to claim they represent and get them to commit to their desired innovations in their tradition explicitly or to abandon inconsistent positions, etc.” Don’t Tell Religious People What They “Really Believe” (Tip 3 of 10 for Reaching Out to Christians) – Camels With Hammers

Equality

“It’s strange, this eagerness we have for placing the culpability for sexual violence everywhere but where it actually resides. I’m done with conversations about rape that do not place the responsibility for rape with rapists. I am absolutely done with questions about what the victim did or did not do to make themselves so vulnerable instead of what the predator did as he (or she) preyed. I am done with conversations about what potential victims can do to prevent rape instead of what rapists can do to stop raping. I am done with conversations about children and sexual violence that try to rationalize issues of consent and sexuality.” Eleven – The Rumpus

“When Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg gave a TED talk in 2010, one of the issues she talked about—and later expounded on in her 2011 commencement speech at Barnard—was likability. “Success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women,” she said. This isn’t news to feminists, so what I can’t figure out is why—despite deep knowledge of this pervasive double standard—so many women still insist on being likable, often to their own detriment.” She Who Dies With the Most ‘Likes’ Wins? – The Nation

Beauty & Body Image

“And I think it’s fair to think that way, because it’s true, there are so many images of beauty that we’ve all memorized. And there is so much certainty about them. And there is so much belief in beauty as something critical for girls and women. And when people don’t like the women who write things on the internet, they call us ugly.” It’s fair to be disappointed by how you look – Eat the Damn Cake

Inspirational

“We think that if we don’t call attention to something no one will notice, so we spend our lives carefully covering our tracks and presenting ourselves folded and in careful lighting.
We trick ourselves into believing that we can keep those parts of ourselves (the soft parts, the not-enough parts, the ugly parts) secret from others, but it costs us an immense amount of energy.
We are in a constant state of apologizing for the person that we are.” When Too Much is Also Not Enough – Mara Glatzel

“If you’re struggling with sugar addiction, and I could say anything to you it would be this:It’s not your fault.Let me say it again: It’s not your fault.
And again, with tears in my eyes: it’s not your fault.You are innocent. Sugar addiction is not about will power or character flaws. It’s not something that you’re consciously choosing.
If you struggle with sugar, your sweet, sweet brain and body is simply looking for a way out – for a way to care for pain that feels too much to bear.” Why addiction is not your fault. Period. – Karly Randolph Pitman